Dennise Small: Volunteer was devoted to her neighborhood

August 7, 2011|By Jeff Kunerth, Orlando Sentinel

Every subdivision needs that person who serves on the homeowners association board nobody wants to join, volunteers for the committees nobody wants to serve on, attends the meetings nobody has time for, hears all the complaints and takes all the blame from all the residents unhappy with how things are being run in the development.

Dennise Small was that person in the Country Club of Mount Dora development of 829 homes. Since moving to the subdivision in 1996, Small served on the Homeowners Association Board, the Architectural Review Board, the Grounds Committee, the Document Review Committee, belonged to the subdivision's Women's Club and helped start the community book club.

Small had just finished updating the 48 pages of rules, regulations and restrictions that govern the development when she died Aug. 4 from multiple myeloma, a cancer of the bone marrow. She was 68.

"Places like this don't survive if you don't have someone like Dennise. She was the glue that very broadly held the community together," said Bill Howser, 77, her husband of 36 years.

The Country Club of Mount Dora is a large development with an annual budget of $1.2 million. The annual cost of maintaining the common areas, lawns, trees, shrubs, retention ponds and irrigation system is $600,000. There are 14 different neighborhoods and 17 ponds.

Yet most of the work to keep the place looking nice fell to a handful of residents. Dennise Small accepted the responsibility that came without much recognition, or respect, because she had spent her working life as an executive assistant in large companies. Executive assistants don't get much recognition for all they do either.

"It's what she's always done. It wasn't much of a stretch. It was just a continuation," Howser said.

Small got the calls when residents felt their common areas were looking shabby, or somebody wanted to paint their house the wrong color, or somebody else wanted argue over why they couldn't plant sunflowers instead of impatiens at the entrance to their subdivision.

She listened to their opinions, complains and suggestions with patience — and then did it the way she thought it should be done.

When she wasn't involved in the homeowners association, Small was reading. A wall in the office of her house is lined with books, many of them cookbooks. She read them front to back, like any other book.

For many years, Bill and Dennise held monthly dinner parties, inviting two other couples, and sending them in advance a fancy menu of what would be served that night. Bill remembers the retro night dinner when the menu was meatloaf, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole and apple pie served on a diner-style oil tablecloth, heavy ceramic plates and big mugs. Another night it was a be-bop themed party.

Bill and Dennise lived in Miami and Washington, D.C., but it was in Mount Dora where she felt most at home, a place where she could use her skills at organization and attention to detail to improve the community in which she lived.

Dennise Callahan Small is survived by her son, Scott C. Small, of Phoenix, Ariz.; brother, James Dennis Callahan, of Jacksonville; sisters, Sue Strayhorn, of Nashville, Tenn., and Catherine A. Callahan, of Alexandria, Va.; four grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

Beyers Funeral Home and Crematory, Leesburg, is handling arrangements.